How the government is salvaging El Mahalla El Kobra: The Public Enterprises Ministry is pushing ahead with a USD 1.3 bn, 30-month plan to transform the country’s state-owned textiles industry by merging companies, selling assets, and adding management incentives for improved performance, Mahmoud Mourad and Patrick Werr write for Reuters. The plan shows that the current government is working to “double down” on bringing state-owned companies back to life in a “reversal” of former president Hosni Mubarak’s trend of handing over these companies to the private sector, they write.

Other headlines to keep on your radar this morning:

• Postcard from the GEM: The Financial Times’ Ruaridh Nicoll tells of his private tour inside the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is set to open next year.
• De-escalating GERD tensions: “Influential friends” of Egypt and Ethiopia must use a combination of carrots and sticks to help the two countries de-escalate their spat over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam to avoid a military confrontation, Imad K. Harb writes for Foreign Policy.
• Weighing the pros and cons of Egypt’s IMF-backed reforms: Egypt’s reforms under an IMF-backed program have improved the macro economy while weighing on citizens’ quality of life, Amr Khafagy writes for OpenDemocracy, claiming that the same outcomes would not be described as a “success” in the global North.
• Fighting for equal inheritance: The Associated Press interviews Huda Nasrallah, a Christian woman fighting Egypt’s inheritance laws which sees men inherit double that of women.
• Woman arrested over critical videos: A woman named Radwa Mohamed has reportedly been arrested after posting a series of videos criticizing President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, with authorities saying she has been detained on charges of spreading false news, the Associated Press reports.
• Narcotics bust: A French citizen of Egyptian origins was arrested at Cairo International Airport for carrying “hundreds” of banned narcotics, according to the Associated Press.